A Growing Gap Between the Average Age of the Largest Market Capitalizations in France and in the US

As a public policy think tank dedicated to studying issues that resonate internationally, France Stratégie publishes regularly in English on the labour market, the digital economy, sustainable development, economics and social affairs.The capacity of young, productive and innovative American firms to grow rapidly and undergo fast renewal is one of the explanations behind the productivity and competitiveness gap between Europe and the US (Sode, 2016). As Cincera and Veugelers (2010) put it, Europe suffers from a shortage of “yollies”, or young leading innovators: i.e. the firms that make the productive fabric of the economy dynamic. In effect, a mere 19% of the large firms most active in R&D in France and Europe in 2007 were founded after 1979, whereas in the US the figure is 44%.

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